Since 1980, the population of metropolitan Rochester has barely grown. Yet we have developed 50 percent more land area.  Today, towns in our region are struggling to afford water, sewer, roads and schools for new developments.  Families have become dependent on their cars since communities are no longer walkable for children and senior citizens.

The Common Good In 1997, the Princeton Club of Rochester inaugurated a “Metropolitan Rochester and the Common Good” speaker series to celebrate Princeton’s 250th anniversary. Speakers like David Rusk and William Julius Wilson spoke about the interrelationship of a city’s sprawl with its eroding tax base and concentration of poverty in the center city. Local leaders created a Common Good Planning Center to carry on this message.

Concentration of Poverty The Joan and Harold Feinbloom Supporting Foundation provided the Center’s founding support. The donors wanted to address the  causes of poverty in Rochester. Sprawl pulls middle-class people and dollars away from the city. The City of Rochester and Rochester Downtown Development Corporation have succeeded in encouraging market-rate housing to bring back middle-income residents.

Engaging Citizen Planners The Common Good Planning Center, now five years old, provides an array of resources for policymakers on land use, development and community planning.  With a vision of attractive, safe, bustling, pedestrian-filled main streets, Common Good Planning Center will be working with a handful of communities to help them think through the steps necessary to realize warm, welcoming and livable places to live and work.